EF make fourth playoffs of 2025 over Falcons

The Turks earn revenge for Cluj-Napoca's quarter-final in their fourth meeting with Falcons this year.

Eternal Fire have defeated Falcons 2-1 to make their fourth Big Event playoffs of 2025, the only team to do so at all of Bounty, Katowice, Cluj, and here at ESL Pro League.

The two sides had met three times this year already, the first two matches going EF's way before Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač led Falcons to victory in PGL Cluj-Napoca's arena quarter-final.

In their fourth faceoff Eternal Fire dealt with NiKo better, as Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker took over proceedings in an impressive 4-8 comeback on Inferno before a first-half Ali "⁠Wicadia⁠" Haydar Yalçın rampage secured the decider of Dust2.

"It feels great to qualify from 1-2," woxic told the stream post-game. "We showed bad CS at the start of [stage 2], but I am really happy that we deserved to go through."

There were shaky moments, a loss to a full eco early on Inferno and a 3v1 given up to NiKo on Mirage, but EF come out the series having won in the key moments.

The win means that Engin "⁠MAJ3R⁠" Küpeli's squad — who have played the most LAN maps of anyone this year at 57 — have completed a marathon run to playoffs which started on March 1 and put them through nine best-of-three series.

Wicadia ends EPL's group stages on a 1.29 rating

Wicadia had a fantastic stage 1 at ESL Pro League, ending it on a 1.43 rating, and we saw that form today too in strong showings on Inferno (1.37 rating) and Dust2 (1.54).

Add that to his 33-10, 2.41-rated performance against MIBR, and there is clear evidence that he has some juice left from his play-in bonanza.

Wicadia, since he broke out at ESL Pro League in 2023, has been prone to inconsistency but he is headed up for his best Big Event yet.

EF did need this Ismailcan "⁠XANTARES⁠" Dörtkardeş quad-kill to close Dust2 but it was Wicadia's strong T side and woxic's sensational CT AWPing on Inferno that got them in that position.

MAJ3R and Sezgin "⁠Fabre⁠" Kalaycı are under intense pressure to keep their playbook fresh after a gruelling start to 2025, and qualifying here is proof that, so far, they are delivering.

Falcons fail to build on Cluj-Napoca final

A disappointed Danny "⁠zonic⁠" Sørensen was reflective in his post-game interview: "Rough game, rough tournament."

A group stage exit is the last thing Falcons needed after their 2025 lineup caught fire at PGL Cluj-Napoca.

The potential shown in that grand final run, with NiKo grabbing an MVP, Abdul "⁠degster⁠" Gasanov firing up in playoffs, and René "⁠TeSeS⁠" Madsen putting his deadly aim to use, was only available in flashes for zonic's squad this event as they slump to a 9-11th placed finish.

"We just never got a foothold on this tournament," zonic continued. "Every game besides Liquid felt like an uphill battle."

NiKo was the only player above a 1.00 rating for the team in Sweden, and even he was liable for elimination after dreadful showings in the Dust2 deciders versus 3DMAX (0.43 rating, 4-15 K-D) and today against EF (0.54 rating, 5-14 K-D).

Those losses on Dust2, the map that Falcons looked so comfortable on before Cluj's grand final, will be particularly concerning to zonic as he looks to get his team ready for BLAST Lisbon in a week's time.